Turkish authorities on Wednesday held some 135 illegal migrants from Istanbul's Fatih district in a clampdown on irregular migration and human trafficking, according to security sources.

The migrants, mostly Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals, were later transferred to the provincial migration offices for legal processing.

Last year, Turkish authorities held a record 454,662 illegal migrants across the country. Nearly 60,000 of them were caught while traversing the Mediterranean. Some 268,000 illegal migrants were held in Turkey in 2018. Nearly 175,000 were held in 2017 and 2016, and 146,000 in 2015.

The authorities also rounded up some 28,000 human traffickers over the past five years.